10 at Claymore, Pan Pacific Orchard: Oyster Buffet Is Back By Popular Demand (Fully Booked for Next 2 Weeks!)

From now to end of July, 10 at Claymore at Pan Pacific Orchard is having an Oyster Buffet priced at only $98 for two persons (M-W) or $68 per pax on other days. We heard that they are fully booked for the next two weeks!

What is special about the oyster buffet is that they serve unlimited portions of handpicked, freshly shucked molluscs from Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand, and USA.

My tongue isn’t so discerning to tell the difference. The Canadian Fanny Bay Pacific Oyster is supposed to be sweet and creamy; the US oyster sweet and salty like cucumber; and the French Normandie like the ocean.

All I know of oysters is whether they are plump, succulent, and sweet. And the oysters here don’t impress us. Some of them are thin slivers, some mushy, and one tasted so terrible that Mr Fitness spat it out and had to gargle his mouth.

Fortunately, the sashimi (above) is fresh and firm and the rest of the buffet are above par. One thing we love about this buffet is that many items are cooked a la minute, some from live stations, some you order from the kitchen.

From the live stations, the steak is cooked nicely to a medium rare. The assam laksa (above, with prawn soup)is on point: tangy and appetizing, using barramundi.

From the kitchen, the foie gras is a tad crisp and charred on the surface, but at least the inside is still soft. There is also a Penang style char kway teow, the dry kind. The meat falls of the bone of baby back ribs. But the lamb rack (above) is tough.

The food from the hot stations consist of Western and Eastern cuisines. From the West, the salmon (above) with a creamy sauce is a surprise winner, still moist, and not fishy at all. Beef ribs braised in wine are also excellent: tender. From the East, while I was looking forward to the braised mushroom with Australianbroccoli (below), which was disappointing, the roasted chicken has a very crispy and delicious skin, and Indian styled butter mock chicken is full of flavorful spices.

Two things that can be improved: Firstly the service. The service is okay, but they are understaffed. Both waiters and cooks at the live stations were too busy to cope. Because they were shorthanded, you may be waiting at an empty live station.

Seafood casserole

Secondly, the display for the desserts. Desserts are separated into 3 different spots, so it can be disorientating. That said, it’s a small space, and understandably they may not have space to put them together.

Speaking of desserts, you can order the chendol (below) from the kitchen. Although the ice shards are a little big—they need to look into their machine—the flavors are rich. The crepe is also good; it is not the French soft kind, it is crispy like ban chang kueh. I added kaya, peanut butter, and their famous lemongrass ginger ice cream to complete the Asian flavors and it is irresistible.(By the way, the ice cream goes well with rojak too.)

Although we came for oysters, we were more impressed by food from the hot stations and from the live stations. The buffet food selection may be small—we finished it in 2 or 3 rounds—but the cooked food is good. I prefer buffets with few but delicious selections to extensive but lousy ones; and 10 at Claymore belongs to the former category.